Part 22 (1/2)
”Who is Qui-Qui?” Dented-s.h.i.+eld asked.
”Someone I knew long ago,” he said.
21:04:17 GMT TUESDAY 21 JUNE 2050.
”Excellent choice of frequency, Jean,” said Seiko. ”Short ultraviolet. Too long for normal cheela vision and too short to cause s.e.xual side effects. It definitely affected the battle.”
”What is happening?” Abdul asked.
”Happened. It was all over in a tenth of a second.”
”But whowon?” Abdul shouted.
”The s.p.a.ce cheela did, of course.” Seiko was monitoring the snippets of condensed news from the crust below.
”With a little help from their friends,” said Abdul.
”They need a little more help,” Seiko said. ”Then: libraries were wiped out by the starquake, and they want us to send back some of the information on our library HoloMem crystals. They don't want all of it, but they will let our computer know which sections.”
”I'll bring up the first crystal.” Pierre, seated at the library console, reached up to the HoloMem rack and pulled out the first crystal. It was still labeledA toAME, but that human dictionary content had been replaced long ago with knowledge from the cheela. The crystal would transmit faster if it were in the communications console on the Main Deck, so Pierre pushed himself up the metal ladder as fast as he could go, knowing that no matter how fast a human moved, it was too slow for a cheela.
Escape
01:01:10 GMT WEDNESDAY 22 JUNE2050.
”That's the last of the HoloMem storage crystals, Pierre,” Jean said as she turned away from the communications console. ”Most of the material on that one was encrypted. I hope they have the crypto-keys.” She swiveled back as the image of Sky-Speaker flashed on the screen.
”Keys obvious,” said Sky-Speaker. ”Goodbye.”
”I liked the old Sky-Teacher better,” said Pierre. ”He talked so verbosely that it gave you time to think.”
”We have plenty of time to think now,” Jean said quietly as she shut down the communications console.
She reached under the counter and extracted the HoloMem crystal that had come from the library and replaced it with the regular console crystal that kept a log of everything that went through the console.
”Too much time,” said Pierre. He followed Jean as she ottered her way down the pa.s.sageway to the crew deck. Jean went to the library console and restored the HoloMem to its place in the storage rack.
Pierre, driven by his command responsibility, returned to the galley and stared at the listing of the food supplies on the food storage lockers. There was food for eight more days at normal rations, sixteen days at half-rations, thirty-two days at quarter-rations ... only one month. It would take five more months after that before Oscar returned from its long elliptical orbit around Egg. His eyes didn't look at the bank of lockers with the blank label. Bouncing lightly in the low gravity, he pa.s.sed Jean at the library console and turned into the lounge. Doc was talking with Seiko and Abdul was looking pensively out of the viewport in the floor.
”HoloMems done?” asked Abdul, looking up.
”Yep,” said Pierre, floating lightly to the cus.h.i.+on beside him.
”Anything left for us mere humans to do?” Abdul asked.
”The cheela don't need us anymore. They should be well on their way to recovery by now.” A tiny white-hot speck appeared outside the viewport window and stopped.
”Smile,” said Abdul. ”You're about to have your picture taken by some tourists.”
The speck released a shower of sparks. There was a flickering of light, then the sparks rejoined the glowing speck and it sped away.
”What are your plans for the rest of the mission, Pierre?” Seiko asked.
”I have no plans.”
”You must!” Seiko sounded disturbed. ”We must not waste our lives doing nothing until we die!”
Pierre raised his gaze from the viewport. The anguish in his face showed through the ragged, unkempt beard.
”I can't find a way to save us,” he said, tears starting to well up in his eyes.
”Of course you can't,” said Seiko. ”Thereis no way to save us. It is simple mathematics. There are five people to feed and only eight days of food rations. We might be able to stretch that out using our body reserves, but we will be out of food in a month. We could even consider eating Amalita's body. At best, we could only get about 50 kilos of meat from it.” She turned to Doc Wong.
”How many calories in meat, Doctor Wong?” she asked him.
”I can't believe this conversation!” said Abdul. ”There is no way I'm going to be a cannibal! I'm leaving!”
He started to dive out the door to his private quarters, but Pierre held him back with a hand on one shoulder. He kept it there as he nodded at Doc to answer.
”Use the values for pork, Doc,” Abdul blurted. ”I hear from my cannibal friends that you can't tell the difference.”
”Most meats have about 4000 calories per kilogram,” said Dr. Cesar Wong. ”The average person could live on a half-kilo of meat per day if the diet were supplemented with vitamins.”
”So 50 kilos would only last us 20 days at full rations or 80 days at quarter rations,” said Seiko. ”We are still short by two months.” She paused for a second. ”As I said, there is no way to save us.”
”I thought for sure that the next thing you were going to suggest was that we draw straws,” said Abdul to Pierre.
”Abdul!” Pierre said severely.
”I have calculated that option,” said Seiko. ”There is a problem. If we wait for a person to die of hunger, then there is very little nourishment left on the body.”
”There'll be none left on mine!” said Abdul.
”If, however, a person dies at the beginning of the period, then not only does his body become a source of significant nourishment, but he is not consuming food as time goes on. Using Doctor Wong's calorie estimate, while two carca.s.ses would allow quarter rations for four people over the same period, three could supply adequate nourishment for the remaining three for six months.”
”Great!” cried Abdul. ”Why stop at cannibalism when we can have ritualistic murder?”
”Although such an option is technically feasible,” continued Seiko, ”I personally have no intention of suggesting or partic.i.p.ating in any such option.”
”What's the matter?” Abdul asked. ”Afraid of drawing the short straw?”
”No. The long one,” answered Seiko. ”Neither you, nor I, nor any of the others, could return to our respective cultures if we had to survive using that solution. I, for one, am going to spend my last days completing my scientific studies, preparing my work for publication, and transmitting it back to St.